ROS Create a Catkin Workspace

Step1 :

First, create the top level catkin workspace directory and a sub-directory named src (pronounced source). The top level directory’s name is arbitrary, but is often called catkin_ws (an abbreviation of catkin_workspace), so we will follow this convention. You can create these two directories with a single command:

$ mkdir -p ~/catkin_ws/src

Step2:

Next, navigate to the src directory with the cd command:

$ cd ~/catkin_ws/src

Step3:

initialize the catkin workspace:

$ catkin_init_workspace

Let’s list the contents of the current directory to see what changed.

$ ls -l

Notice that a symbolic link (CMakeLists.txt) has been created to
/opt/ros/kinetic/share/catkin/cmake/toplevel.cmake

Step4:

Return to top level directory

$ cd ~/catkin_ws

Step5:

build the workspace
Note: you must issue this command from within the top level directory (i.e., within catkin_ws NOT catkin_ws/src)

$ catkin_make